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4 Things Your eBook Cover Designer Should Also Create For You

December 3rd, 2012 . by Peggy

Whether you’re creating your own eBook cover, or hiring someone else to design it for you, that’s a great time to create additional graphics that will help build your eBook business.

It’s often cheaper to order these items at the same time as your cover design, and easier if you are designing it yourself, because all the source materials are already at hand. Graphic unity is very important in a virtual business, to build credibility and trust, and increase discoverability of your product.

Below are four key areas that you should get done ASAP.

1) Social media icons and headers.

Recently, iTunes changed their image requirements for things like podcasting and personal icons. You know, that square icon that identifies Atlanta Rhythm Section from Peter Frampton? (I’m old. Get over it.) Your image that fits that space can also be used on things like Skype, Twitter, and many, many others. One graphic of 1400×1400, in .jpg format, is all you need across all those platforms, and it should include a professional headshot of yourself. Check out mine here.

2) Banners for affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing should be a core part of your long-term marketing plan for your eBook. Even if that only means inviting others to use Amazon Associates links back to your eBook on Kindle. If you plan to use your own in-house affiliate program, so much the better. Having graphical ads that hilight the use of your key graphic elements should be an essential part of that. Here’s your chance to use your book cover design and really put it all out there. Here are some recommended sizes for those banners, below. (Click the image to open it at actual size, so you can see how big the banners will actually be.)

3) WordPress header or banner for your landing page.

It’s important to have a clear image at the top of any web (WordPress-based) pages that you plan to use for your book’s blog or sales page. In WordPress, the standard 2011 theme uses an image of 1000 x 288 pixels. This should ideally include an image of you, and your eBook. The clearer the better.

4) Images for use on social media, especially Pinterest.

This is different from ad banners – you’ll want some other fun and playful images to use as you promote the eBook, such as a 3-D cover, samples of the cover in several small sizes to avoid pixelation on the web, etc. Pinterest, the photo sharing site, has changed this to be an entirely new ballgame. Here’s a great place to share fun and unusual iamges that others will feel compelled to share in return – with a trail of breadcrumbs that lead back to you. For example, do you have a series of great headshots that were not all used in the eBook or on the cover? Here’s the place to use them. Is yours a cookbook? Be sure to get some images of you interacting with food, or shots of the recipes themselves. What about action shots? You, out and about in the community? Near landmarks? Even better, what about video? At the very least, be sure to have a library of images that you build on an ongoing basis. Your designer can help you crop and modify them for use almost anywhere, including your Facebook page or Twitter, but especially Pinterest.